‘Like Trying to Fly a Plane While You’re Building It’

The airplane metaphor has become a common theme in conversations among wildland firefighters discussing the U.S. Wildland Fire Service (WFS). President Trump issued Executive Order 14308 mandating consolidation of federal wildfire programs, and the new agency is the product of that executive order, which seeks to combine fire programs of five different federal agencies across two Cabinet-level departments. The order set a deadline of 90 days for the agencies to complete consolidation. A year later, during a record-setting wildfire year, federal fire consolidation is far from complete.